Dynamic fluid–structure interaction of an elastic capsule in a viscous shear flow at moderate Reynolds number

The unsteady behavior of a 2-D circular elastic capsule was investigated in three viscous shear flows. An immersed boundary method (IBM) has been used to solve the dynamic fluid-structure interaction of the capsule. Computations were carried out in finite parameter ranges where the Reynolds number is Re=1-40 and the capillary number is Ca=0.0005-0.05, which is the ratio of the external viscous shear stress to the resistant elastic tensions of the membrane. For the simple shear flow, the effect of inertia on the transient behavior of the capsule was studied. For the pulsatile shear flow, two values of the peak fluid strain, T_f=1 and 5, were considered for the quasi-steady capsule mechanics. The capsule shows a cyclic structural response that includes subharmonics as the Reynolds number is elevated to 10 and 40. The capsule dynamic response includes a phase lag, which is a function of the capillary number, the Reynolds number, and the peak fluid strain. Finally, the capsule flowing in the Couette flow shows lateral migration due to the transient lift force, which is higher for lower Ca and higher Re. When capsules with diverse elasticity are dispersed along the velocity gradient, the capsule with a hard membrane experienced greater lift than the one with a soft membrane.     

In situ observations of unusual drop deformation and wobbling in simple shear flow

Deformation and wobbling of a liquid drop immersed in a liquid matrix were studied under mild shear conditions for various viscosity ratios. In situ visualization experiments were conducted on a homemade transparent Couette cell incorporated to the Paar Physica MCR500 shear rheometer. The effect of drop or matrix elasticity was examined and was found to play a major role in both deformation and wobbling processes. Experimental results were compared to Jackson and Tucker (J Rheol 47:659–682, 2003), Maffettone and Minale (J Non-Newton Fluid Mech 78:227–241, 1998) and Yu and Bousmina (J Rheol 47:1011–1039, 2003) ellipsoidal models. It was found that the agreement between the Newtonian models and the experimental results required an increase in the drop viscosity. Such increment in viscosity was found to scale with the first normal stress difference.     

The orientational behavior of multiwall carbon nanotubes in polycarbonate in simple shear flow

This paper describes the changes in the orientation of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in polycarbonate as determined by transient and oscillatory shear rheology. It is well known from rheological studies on composites with macroscopic fibers that the overshoot in transient shear viscosity is caused by the change in orientation distribution of these fibers. This study shows that although an overshoot in transient shear viscosity of MWCNT/polycarbonate is measured at shear rates as low as 0.1 s^− 1, the MWCNT network is disturbed only at considerably higher shear rates. Scanning electron microscopy micrographs and oscillatory shear show that MWCNT in thermoplastic composites will only be oriented at high shear rates. Simultaneous measurements of the electrical conductivity during rheological start-up shear and oscillatory measurements show large differences between electrical and mechanical relaxation behaviors. The viscosity of the composite seems to depend strongly on the MWCNT network density, whereas the proximity of the tubes at the network points seems to determine the electrical properties of the MWCNT composite.     

Rolling/sliding of a particle on a flat wall in a linear shear flow at finite Re

Recently Lee and Balachandar proposed analytically-based expressions for drag and lift coefficients for a spherical particle moving on a flat wall in a linear shear flow at finite Reynolds number. In order to evaluate the accuracy of these expressions, we have conducted direct numerical simulations of a rolling particle for shear Reynolds number up to 100. We assume that the particle rolls on a horizontal flat wall with a small gap separating the particle from the wall (L = 0.505) and thus avoiding the logarithmic singularity. The influence of the shear Reynolds number and the translational velocity of the particle on the hydrodynamic forces of the particle was investigated under both transient and the final drag-free and torque-free steady state. It is observed that the quasi-steady drag and lift expressions of Lee and Balachandar provide good approximation for the terminal state of the particle motion ranging from perfect sliding to perfect rolling. With regards to transient particle motion in a wall-bounded shear flow it is observed that the above validated quasi-steady drag and lift forces must be supplemented with appropriate wall-corrected added-mass and history forces in order to accurately predict the time-dependent approach to the terminal steady state. Quantitative comparison with the actual particle motion computed in the numerical simulations shows that the theoretical models quite effective in predicting rolling/sliding motion of a particle in a wall-bounded shear flow at moderate Re.     

Effect of confinement on droplet deformation in shear flow

The dynamics of a single droplet under shear flow between two parallel plates is investigated by using the immersed boundary method. The immersed boundary method is appropriate for simulating the drop-ambient fluid interface. We apply a volume-conserving method using the normal vector of the surface to prevent mass loss of the droplet. In addition, we present a surface remeshing algorithm to cope with the distortion of droplet interface points caused by the shear flow. This mesh quality improvement in conjunction with the volume-conserving algorithm is particularly essential and critical for long time evolutions. We study the effect of wall confinement on the droplet dynamics. Numerical simulations show good agreement with previous experimental results and theoretical models.     

Rheological behavior of a dilute suspension of relatively coarse deformable particles in a simple shear flow

Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 1, pp. 55–61, January–February, 1990.     

Numerical investigation of the influence of shear band localization on the resonant behavior in the VHCF regime

The monitored resonant behavior of fatigue specimens of metastable austenitic stainless steel (AISI304) is correlated with its damage accumulation in the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) regime. The resonant behavior is studied experimentally and shows a distinct transient characteristic. Microscopic examinations indicate that during VHCF a localized plastic deformation in shear bands arises on the specimen surface. Hence, this work focuses on the effect of damage accumulation in shear bands on the resonant behavior of AISI304 in the VHCF regime. A microstructural simulation model is proposed that takes into account specific mechanisms in shear bands proven by experimental results. The simulation model is solved numerically using the two-dimensional boundary element method and the resonant behavior is characterized by evaluating the force-displacement hysteresis loop. Simulation of shear bands agrees well with microscopic examinations and plastic deformation in shear bands influences the transient characteristic of the resonant behavior.     

Lattice Boltzmann modeling of transport phenomena in fuel cells and flow batteries

Fuel cells and flow batteries are promising technologies to address climate change and air pollution problems. An understanding of the complex multiscale and multiphysics transport phenomena occurring in these electrochemical systems requires powerful numerical tools. Over the past decades, the lattice Boltzmann(LB) method has attracted broad interest in the computational fluid dynamics and the numerical heat transfer communities, primarily due to its kinetic nature making it appropriate for modeling complex multiphase transport phenomena. More importantly, the LB method fits well with parallel computing due to its locality feature, which is required for large-scale engineering applications. In this article, we review the LB method for gas–liquid two-phase flows, coupled fluid flow and mass transport in porous media, and particulate flows. Examples of applications are provided in fuel cells and flow batteries. Further developments of the LB method are also outlined.     

Chaotic dynamics of periodically forced spheroids in simple shear flow with potential application to particle separation

In this paper, we consider the technologically important problem of periodically forced spheroids in simple shear flow and demonstrate the existence of chaotic parametric regimes. The approach used by Strand (1989) (for the Strong Brownian limit) is inappropriate in the chaotic regimes corresponding to the weak Brownian limit. Our results also indicate a strong dependence of the solutions obtained on the aspect ratio of the spheroids. This strong dependence on the aspect ratio may be utilized to separate particles from a suspension of particles having different shapes but similar sizes.     

Experimental and numerical study of the rotation and the erosion of fillers suspended in viscoelastic fluids under simple shear flow

When a porous agglomerate immersed in a fluid is submitted to a shear flow, hydrodynamic stresses acting on its surface may cause a size reduction if they exceed the cohesive stress of the agglomerate. The aggregates forming the agglomerate are slowly removed from the agglomerate surface. Such a behaviour is known when the suspending fluid is Newtonian but unknown if the fluid is viscoelastic. By using rheo-optical tools, model fluids, carbon black agglomerates and particles of various shapes, we found that the particles had a rotational motion around the vorticity axis with a period which is independent on shape (flat particles not considered), but which is exponentially increasing with the elasticity of the medium expressed by the Weissenberg number (We). Spherical particles are always rotating for We up to 2.6 (largest investigated We in this study) but elongated particles stop rotating for We>0.9 while orienting along the flow direction. Erosion is strongly reduced by elasticity. Since finite element numerical simulation shows that elasticity increases the local stress around a particle, the origin of the erosion reduction is interpreted as an increase of cohesiveness of the porous agglomerate due to the infiltration of a viscoelastic fluid.     

Dynamic behavior of two collinear anti-plane shear cracks in a functionally graded layer bonded to dissimilar half planes

In recent years, the functionally graded materials (FGMs) have been widely applied in extremely high temperate environment. In this paper, the dynamic behavior of two collinear cracks in FGM layer bonded to dissimilar half planes under anti-plane shear waves is studied by the Schmidt method. By using the Fourier transform technique, the present problem can be solved with a dual integral equation. These equations are solved using the Schmidt method. The present method is used to illustrate the fundamental behavior of the interacting cracks in FGMs under dynamic loading. Furthermore, the effects of the geometry of the interacting cracks, the shear stress wave velocity of the materials and the frequency of the incident wave on the Dynamic Stress Intensity Factor are investigated.     

Numerical analysis of the developing fluid flow in a circular duct rotating steadily about a parallel axis

A numerical analysis of the flow pattern in the inlet region of a circular pipe rotating steadily about an axis parallel to its own is presented. Both finite cell and finite element methods are used to analyse the problem and they give qualitatively similar results which show that a swirling fluid motion is induced in the pipe inlet region. The analyses show that the direction of swirl is opposite to that of the pipe rotation when viewed along the flow axis and that its magnitude depends on the speed of pipe rotation and throughflow Reynolds number. Neither numerical analysis predicts the marked upturn in friction factor (or pressure drop) which has been observed experimentally. However, a dependence on the pipe inlet boundary conditions is demonstrated.     

Review of chaos in the dynamics and rheology of suspensions of orientable particles in simple shear flow subject to an external periodic force

We review results obtained over a period of about a decade on a class of technologically and fundamentally important problems in suspension rheology viz., the dynamics and rheology of dipolar suspensions of orientable particles in simple shear flow. The areas explored in this review include effects such as the fluid flow field, external forcing, Brownian diffusion, hydrodynamic interactions and their impact on the rheological properties of the suspension. The main feature of the presentation is the use of a uniform framework in which one or more of the above effects can be studied, based on Langevin type equations for particle orientations combined with a brute-force technique for computing orientational averages. These models are capable of capturing complex dynamical behaviour in the system such as the presence of subharmonics or chaos, both in the dynamics and rheology. The tools developed allow for investigating how chaos in the system is affected by Brownian diffusion and hydrodynamic interactions. The presence of chaos opens up a number of novel possibilities for dynamical and rheological behaviour of the system, which can be put to efficient use in many ways, e.g. in separating particles by aspect ratio and possibly developing computer controlled intelligent rheology. The results also have implications for certain areas of chaos theory, such as a new intermittency route to chaos and the possibility of non-trivial collective behaviour in spatially extended systems. These studies highlight certain deficiencies in current techniques in the literature for handling the rheology of dilute and semi-dilute suspensions. In the presence of Brownian motion the proposed method computes the averages by simulating a set of deterministic ordinary differential equations rather than stochastic differential equations. The systems considered may also serve as a paradigm for analysing how microscopic chaotic fluctuations in spatially extended systems affect macroscopic averages. We also attempt to put our results into context with respect to recent work on rheochaos in complex fluids such as liquid crystals and nematic polymers.